Pardew was still happy with his team's performance, but did concede he needs to improve his squad, with Marseille hitman Loic Remy thought to be high on the Magpies manager's shortlist.

"We are pursuing three or four players and they all seem to be warming up a bit," said the former West Ham boss, who watched his side tumble out of the FA Cup at npower Championship side Brighton last week.

"We need a bigger pool of players, but coming here today was always going to be difficult.

"Norwich are very efficient at set-plays and crosses, but we defended really well as a team.

"The work we did on the back four this week was evident.

"We were a lot tighter as a team. You could say it was a bore draw but it was definitely a step forward for us.

"We have repaid a little bit of the debt we had to our fans who made the trip to Brighton."